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Summary

The Cultures of the West: A Historyfocuses on the ways in which the major ideas and passions of Western culture developed, internally, and how they interacted with the broader world-for good and for ill. The development of such key ideas as religion, science, and philosophy form the central narrative of this book. The Cultures of the Weststands apart from other textbooks in a variety of ways, the first being thematic unity. What did people think and believe, throughout our history, about human nature, the right way to live, God, the best forms of government, or the meaning of human life? Rather than maintaining a single interpretive stance, author Clifford R. Backman relies upon a consistent set of questions: What did people think and feel throughout the centuries about politics, science, religion, and sex? How did they come to their positions regarding the right way to live? Backman's many years of experience in the classroom have informed his approach-students respond to engaging questions more than they are inspired by facts. Features: * Single author voice:clearly and compellingly written by an experienced teacher and scholar who knows how to emphasize intriguing and eye-opening elements of Western Civilization * A book with a point of view:even if disagreed with, the text will at engage students' minds * Exceptional coverage of cultural history, especially the history of what people thought and felt throughout the history of the West *"Greater West" approachthat integrates in sustained fashion coverage of Islam and the Middle East *Superior coverageof Jewish history and the history of women *Extensive primary source excerptsintegrated directly into the text, many of which have been translated by the author *Footnotesfeaturing surprising, engaging information usually neglected in other texts

Author Biography

Clifford R. Backman is Professor of History at Boston University. He is the author of The Worlds of Medieval Europe, Second Edition (OUP, 2008), and The Decline and Fall of Medieval Sicily: Politics, Religion, and Economy in the Reign of Frederick III, 1296-1337 (1995).

Table of Contents

1. Water and Soil, Stone and Metal, 10,000 BCE - 2100 BCE

The Tigris and the EuphratesEarly Sumer: Kings and Warriors, Priests and ScribesThe Idea of EmpireMesopotamian Life: Cities and Slaves, Letters and NumbersReligion and Myth: The Great Above and Great BelowAncient EgyptSocial Strata in EgyptThe Kingdom of the Dead

2. Law-Givers, Evil Emperors, and Dangerous Gods, 2100 BCE - 486 BCE

Old BabylonMiddle Kingdom EgyptThe New Kingdom EmpireThe Indo-European AssaultThe Age of Iron Begins, ca. 1200 BCEPersia and the Religion of Fire

3. The Chosen People, 1200 BCE - 538 BCE

A Great NationThe Bible and HistoryThe Land of CanaanDreams of a Golden AgeWomen and the LawProphets and ProphecyPriests and RabbisA Genius for Reinvention

4. Greeks and Persians, 2000 BCE - 479 BCE

From Chaos to TragedyThe Mycenaean World: Heroes and KingsThe End of an Age and Mythic AncestorsColonists, Hoplites, and TyrantsA Cult of MasculinitySparta: The Militarization of the CitizenryMiletus: A Merchant Oligarchy and the First PhilosophersAthenian democracyThe Persian Wars

5. Hellenism and Second Temple Judaism, 499 BCE - 192 BCE

The Classical AgeWomen, Children, and SlavesThe Polis; Ritual and RestraintCivilized Pursuits: Epic and Lyric PoetryThe Birth of TragedyThe Peloponnesian DisasterMedicine as Natural Law: HippocratesMathematical Ordering and SophistrySocrates and the Meaningful Life Plato and Ideal FormsAristotle and the Pursuit of HappinessAlexander the Great A Mongrel but Magnificent WorldSecond Temple Jews and JudaismThe Maccabaean Revolt

6. The Empire of the Sea: Rome, 753 BCE - 180 CE

Links to a Heroic AgeRepublic, Property, and FamilyThe Republic of VirtueSize MattersCan the Republic Be Saved?The Golden Age: The Augustan EraThe Sea, The SeaRoman Lives and ValuesThe "Five Good Emperors"

7. Paganisms and Christianities, 40 BCE - 305 CE

The Jesus MysteryA Crisis in TraditionMinistry and MovementWhat Happened to His Disciples?Christianities EverywhereRomans in PursuitPagan VitalityStoicism and Neoplatonism

8. The Early Middle Ages, 306 CE - 750 CE

The Imperial CrisisImperial Decline: Rome's OverreachMartyrdom and empireA Christian Emperor and a Christian ChurchThe Rise of "New Rome""The Age of Ignorance" The Islamic RevelationFrom Preacher to ConquerorCompulsion or Conversion?Classical Traditions and Western ExpansionBarbarian Kings and Scholar-MonksDivided Estates and KingdomsThe Body as Money and Women as PropertyChristian PaganismPockets of Intellectual Life

9. Reform and Renewal, 750-1258

Two Palace CoupsThe Carolingian AscentCharlemagneImperial CoronationCarolingian CollapseThe Islamic EmpireSunnis and Shi'aThe Qur'an and the PhilosophersThe Splintering of the CaliphateThe Reinvention of Western EuropeMediterranean CitiesThe Reinvention of the ChurchThe CrusadesBut Not a War Against IslamParliaments and the Mamluk EmpireJudaism Reformed, Renewed, and Reviled

10. Worlds Brought Down, 1258-1453

Late Medieval EuropeScholasticismMysticismThe Guild SystemThe Mendicant OrdersEarly Representative Government ChivalryThe Hundred Years' WarThe PlagueConquest of the Islamic WorldIn the Wake of the MongolsA New Center for IslamConservatism and ReactionThe Ottoman TurksPersia under the Il-Khans

11. Renaissances and Reformations, 1350-1550

"I Fixed upon Antiquity"Classicism, Humanism, and StatecraftThe Political and Economic MatrixThe Renaissance AchievementThe Protestant RenaissanceErasmus: Satirist and Itinerant ScholarMartin Luther: The Gift of SalvationRebellion against the Church: "95 Theses"The Reformation Goes InternationalScholars and ActivistsProtestantism without LutherCalvin: Protestantism as TheologyThe Rebirth of Satire Utopias and Book BurningsRabelais: The In-house Catholic Attack

12. The Last Crusades, 1492-1648

The New WorldNew Continents and ProfitsConquest and EpidemicsNew Crops and the Enclosure Movement The Patriarchal FamilySexual MoralityEnemies Within: Witches and JewsThe Jews of the East and WestWars of ReligionThe Peace of Augsburg and the Edict of Nantes The Church of EnglandThe Thirty Years' WarWars of Religion: The Eastern FrontThe Waning of the SultanateNew Centers of Intellectual LifeThe Ottomans: From Strife to Warfare

13. Science Breaks Out and Breaks Through, 1500-1700

The Copernican DramaGalileo and the Truth of NumbersThe Other Scientific RevolutionThe Council of Trent, 1546-1563The Society of JesusInquisition and InquiryThe Revolution BroadensThe Ethical Costs of ScienceThe Islamic Retreat from ScienceThinking about TruthDescartes and the Quest for TruthNewton's Mathematical PrinciplesThe Choices for Western Society

14. From Westphalia to Paris: Regimes Old and New, 1648-1789

The Peace of Westphalia: 1648The Argument for TyrannyThe Social ContractAbsolute PoliticsPolice StatesSelf-Indulgence with a PurposeMercantilism and AbsolutismMercantilism and PovertyDomesticating Dynamism: Regulating Culture Decency and ModestyThe Birth of Private LifeThe English ExceptionCivil War and RestorationOttoman Might and Islamic AbsolutismSafavid PleasuresThe End of OrderThe Slave Trade and Domestic SubjugationThe return of uncertainty

15. The Enlightened, 1690-1789

The Origins of the EnlightenmentLearning from Our Worst MistakesLocke and the Administration of the CommonwealthBayle and Religious TolerationFree Markets and Rational PunishmentDiderot and the Circulation of the EnlightenmentVoltaire and the Limits of OptimismRousseau: "Mankind Is Born Free"Jewish EnlightenmentHaskalah and HasidismThe Jews and Europe's AmbivalenceThe UnenlightenedAssessing the Enlightenment

16. The War against Absolutism, 1789-1815

A Revolution in Western History?Revolutionary RoadThe Revolution Turns RadicalNapoléon and the War against AbsolutismThe Rush to EmpireThe Continental SystemHow to Judge a RevolutionDownfallLeaving the East Behind

17. Industrialization and Its Discontents, 1750-1850

England's Head-StartInnovation and InfrastructureTrying to Catch Up to EnglandTrying to Catch Up to Europe"The Sick Man of Europe"Life in the Industrial AgeRiots and ReformWomen and Children LastThe Romantic Generation

18. The Birth of Modern Politics, 1815-1848

Conservatism in PowerRoyalism and NationalismThe Moral Component of ConservatismThe Challenge of LiberalismIndustrial Capitalism and its CriticsThe Real Revolution of 1848Karl Marx and RevolutionThe Collapse of the "Concert of Europe"Women and the Cult of DomesticityPopular Magazines and the Novel

19. Nationalism and Identity, 1801-1903

Nationalism in TheoryNationalism in Practice: Germany and ItalyFrustrated Nationalism: Hungary and IrelandAssimilation and ZionismIslamic NationalismsReforming Islam

20. The God Problem, 1799-1907

Nietzsche: A Cosmos without GodWho Killed God?The Theory of CreationEvolution by Natural SelectionThe Bible and HistoryThe Protestant Churches' ResponseThe Catholic CounterattackThe War on ModernismModernism, Secularism, and the JewsThe Islamic Exception

21. The Modern Woman, 1860-1914

The Appetite for ReformWhose Rights Come First?Suffragists and SuffragettesLove and the "Modern Woman"School, Work, and the New WomanWomen, Islam, and NationalismHonor Killing and Genital Cutting

Sickness unto DeathA Wave or a Particle?Relativity and SpacetimeThe Will to PowerLogic and LanguageFrom Phenomenology to ExistentialismThe Illness of Western SocietySexuality and PsychoanalysisBeyond the Pleasure PrincipleModernism and IronyThe Artistic Truth Within

24. The World at War (Part I), 1914-1920

The Run-Up to WarThe Balance of PowerA New Map of HellThe War in the TrenchesThe Home FrontOfficers and GentlemenRussia's RevolutionBolshevism and the Laws of HistoryExporting RevolutionHow Not to End a WarYoung Turks

25. Radical Realignments, 1919-1939

History for BeginnersParceling Out NationsNew Rights and New EconomiesThe Great DepressionThe Search for Someone to BlameModernism, Experiment, and TraumaThe Rise of Fascism: Italy and SpainNazism in GermanyOppression and Terror in RussiaA New Deal?Appeasement and Pacifism

26. The World at War (Part II), 1937-1945

A Place in MemoryThe War in EuropeWars in the PacificAtrocities and HolocaustMaking AmendsThe United Nations and Human RightsAtomic FissuresWomen in, and against, FascismWorld War II and the Middle EastArab Nationalism and Growing Zionism

27. The Theater of the Absurd, 1945-1968

Setting to WorkAlienation and the AbsurdThe Cold War and DecolonizationDecolonizationThe Welfare Society and the Economic BoomSocial Conservatism, Economic Liberalism, and the Postwar BoomA Generation of RebellionTurning Point: 1967-1968The Female FactorWomen, Islam, and the StateThe Structures of Thought

One Year, Four CrisesThe United States of EuropeFeminism's Third WaveWomen and the Global WorldIslam and Its DiscontentsBut Why Terrorism? Economic Globalization

30. Hearts and Minds Going Forward, 2001-Present

"Why Do They Hate Us?"War and Peace, from the Balkans to PalestineIsrael, Palestine, and the Arab SpringVeiled ThreatsDebt, Taxes, and LibertyFree Market? What Free Market?What Is the Greater West Now?